07/18/2000
At last count, the United Nations had as many as 71 Special and
Personal Representatives, Special Envoys, Mission and Military
Personnel, all ostensibly doing work for the UN Secretary-General.
But who are these people, what do they do, how much are they paid,
and has the proliferation of such assignments made any difference
in resolving the numerous intractable conflicts and problems confronting
the UN and the world today?

A breakdown of that number shows 23 of these representatives
at the Under-Secretary-General (USG) level; 20 at the Assistant
Secretary-General (ASG) level; and 19 at the Director (D-2) level.
The remaining 9 represent inter-organizational bodies, with 3
USGs and 6 ASGs.

The USGs - all men, naturally! - include, in alphabetical order,
Oluyemi Adeniji (Nigeria). What a disaster he has been as head
of UNAMSIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone. It is
said that he is grossly lacking in management skills. Be on the
lookout for a candid and damning report (unless it gets watered
down!) from the fact-finding team headed by General Manfred Eisele
of Germany, which was sent by the Secretary-General in May/June
to study the operation there after rebels of the Revolutionary
United Front (RUF) seized UN peacekeepers as hostages. The team's
recommendation: replace Adeniji and his whole inept bunch.

Then there is Carl Bildt (Sweden), the Special Envoy for
the Balkans. Thankfully, Bildt gets a special service allowance
(SSA) only when he's actually doing UN work, because he is definitely
an envoy in search of a mission since his days as High Representative
in Bosnia. And get this: the budget for Bildt's office, for six
months, is more than the annual budget for the UN Information
Service in Geneva. And where does all that dough go? On travel,
per diem and consultants, even though Bildt is a walking encyclopaedia
on the Balkans and knows more about the region than any number
of consultants combined. His contract is up soon, but expect him
to stay put.

Lakhdar Brahimi (Algeria) seems to be earning his salary.
As USG for Special Assignments in support of the Secretary-General's
preventive and peacemaking efforts, he is chairing a panel that
is examining all aspects of UN peacekeeping and whose report is
eagerly later this month.

William Eagleton (United States) is cooling his heels
in Laayoune, as head of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western
Sahara (MINURSO). Remember, too, that former US Secretary of State
James A. Baker III is Personal Envoy for Western Sahara
as well.) The prediction: Don't hold your breath waiting for a
referendum to take place any time soon. Where do former Permanent
Representatives to the UN end up? In the case of Ibrahim Gambari
(Nigeria), as a USG and Special Adviser for Special Assignments
in Africa. Since his appointment last December, one has to ask
whether the experienced diplomat and distinguished scholar has
actually been involved in decision making. Witness the debacle
in Sierra Leone; the explosive situation in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, with the potential to become a third world war,
this time in Africa; the off-again, on-again, and currently off-again,
war between Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa; and let's
not forget the incessant, fratricidal bloodletting in Angola and
Burundi. With so many people advising the Secretary-General, an
African, on Africa (Let's not forget that Ibrahima Fall
(Senegal) is ASG for Africa within the Secretariat's Department
of Political Affairs, headed by Sir Kieran Prendergast),
why does the situation on much of that beleaguered continent not
improve? One is reminded of the old saw that "Too many cooks spoil
the broth."

Jacques Klein (United States), the brassy American general,
continues to get things done, as Coordinator of UN Operations
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, just as he did, military-like and very
successfully, in Croatia during the UNTAES operation. Another
hard worker is Dr. Bernard Kouchner (France), the Special Representative
for Kosovo, who has had to make do with far less of everything
promised by the Western countries while NATO forces were bombing
Kosovo to rid it of Milosevic's murderous hordes. There is far
less in terms of the human and financial resources required for
the day-to-day administration and rehabilitation of that troubled
province. There are daily rumours that he is quitting. Small wonder,
given the frustrations of the job!

Eduard Kukan (Slovakia) is the other Special Envoy for
the Balkans. Since the appointment of Kouchner and the heads of
the other organizations responsible for Kosovo, Kukan and Bildt
have no place to go and nothing to do, they seem to be occasionally
seen but rarely heard, but they still hold their titles.

Terje Roed Larsen (Norway), the UN Special Coordinator
for the Middle East Process and Personal Representative to the
PLO and Palestine Authority, has been kept extremely busy since
Israel took everybody by surprise with its ahead-of-schedule and
unilateral withdrawal from south Lebanon.

Jamsheed Marker (Pakistan) still carries the title of
Personal Representative for East Timor, and deserves credit for
directing the negotiations which ultimately led to Indonesia's
reluctant hand-over of the former Portuguese Territory to UN administration.

Sergio Vieira de Mello (Brazil), the Special Representative
for East Timor, is doing so well in administering the Territory
that the media has moved on, now that there are no more ghastly
tales of bodies in wells and other horrors to report. Hats off
to Olara Otunnu (Côte d'Ivoire), the Special Representative
for Children and Armed Conflict. This unassuming and gentle man
has made the plight of children his life's mission, and pursues
his work with missionary zeal and dedication. The International
Peace Academy's loss was the world's gain, particularly its children.
The irrepressible Giandomenico Picco (Italy), who has an
uncanny knack for bouncing back, is, in his current reincarnation,
the Secretary-General's Personal Representative for the UN Year
of Dialogue among Civilizations (2001). The idea for the observance
was the brainchild of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, when
he addressed the General Assembly in 1998.

Mohamed Sahnoun (Algeria), Special Envoy of the Secretary-General
in Africa, appears to have no specific assignment at the moment,
but he is remembered for his efforts in Somalia and in the Great
Lakes Region.

Prakash Shah (India), according to the list of top echelon
appointments, gets paid when actually employed. He had been Special
Representative in Iraq. By now he is back in India heading an
NGO. In recent days, he has had very little to do in Baghdad.
For that matter, neither does Hans Blix (Sweden), the new
Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC (the UN Monitoring and Verification
Inspection Commission). UNMOVIC's predecessor body, UNSCOM (which
was headed by Australian Richard Butler who is at present pushing
his tell-all book about his Iraq experience), departed Iraq in
December 1998, ahead of a US/UK bombing campaign that is still
ongoing in the so-called "no-fly zones" over Iraq. UN inspectors
have not been allowed back in, and perhaps never will, despite
the humanitarian plight of the civilian Iraqi people as a result
of UN-imposed sanctions to force Iraq to disclose and dispose
of its weapons of mass destruction under UN supervision and verification.

Others in the USG category include three $1 a year Special Advisers:
Diego Cordovez (Ecuador), Ismat Kittani (Iraq) and
Maurice Strong (Canada), who has been reportedly involved
in so many business deals while promoting UN reform. He is also
Special Representative to the University of Peace. Incidentally,
Mr. Strong's resume does not show any substantial university education.
Still other USGs are: Jan Egeland (Norway), who advises
on international assistance to Colombia; Oliver Jackman
(Barbados), who is Personal Representative on the border controversy
between Guyana and Venezuela; Jean-Bernard Merimee (France),
Special Adviser on European Issues, is a former Permanent Representative
to the UN; Yuli Vorontsov (Russian Federation), another
former Permanent Representative, is a Special Envoy with no specific
portfolio; and Tom Eric Vraalsen (Norway) is Special Envoy
for humanitarian affairs for the Sudan.

Africa, alone has 16 such Representatives/Envoys (some of them
mentioned above). They are: Berhanu Dinka (Ethiopia), Special
Representative for the Great Lakes Region; USG Ibrahim Gambari
(Nigeria), Special Adviser for Special Assignments in Africa;
Mohamed Sahnoun (Algeria), Special Envoy in Africa; Hazel
Scott (Guyana), Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Office
in Angola; Jean Arnault (France), Representative of the
Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office in Burundi; Aiyte
Jean-Claude Kpapko (Benin), Senior UN Adviser to the Facilitator
of the Burundi Peace Process; Cheikh Tidiane Sy (Senegal),
Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Peace-building
Office in the Central African Republic; ASG Ibrahima Fall (Senegal),
Special Envoy to Côte d'Ivoire; Kamel Morjane (Tunisia),
Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo
and Head of Mission; Samuel C. Nana-Sinkam (Cameroon),
Representative and Head of the UN Peace-building Support Office
in Guinea-Bissau; Felix Downes-Thomas (Gambia), Representative
of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Peace-building Support
Office in Liberia; Oluyemi Adeniji (Nigeria) Special Representative
and Head of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone; David Stephen
(United Kingdom) Representative and Head of the UN Political Office
for Somalia; Tom Eric Vraalsen (Norway), Special Envoy
for Humanitarian Affairs in the Sudan; William Eagleton
(United States), Special Representative for the UN Mission for
the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO); and James A. Baker
III (United States), Personal Envoy for Western Sahara.

I'll stop here, but I think you get the picture of what all these
Special, Personal and other Representatives are about. What, pray
tell, is the rationale for having so many, "do-nothings" included,
and paying them hefty per diems (which is tantamount to salaries),
in light of the Organization's perennial financial malaise? Where
is the money coming from to pay them?

Another question which pops to mind is this: With so many Special
and Personal Representatives, Special Envoys and Advisers, for
Africa, for instance why is much of that continent such a basket
case?